Riverdale book library database application

Project Title

Riverdale book library database application

Project Brief Description

Riverdale Greaves Vanderpuyle (RGV) Limited is a private library headquartered in Accra, Ghana. It specializes in renting out books to its member customers. The first branch of RGV Ghana was established in 1990 in Accra Ghana, but the company has now grown and has many branches throughout West Africa.

The company's success is due to the first-class services it provides to its members and the varied stocks of books available for rent. RGV Limited currently has about 500 staff working in 20 branches.

Each branch of RGV has a stock of books for hire or rent. Each book item is uniquely identified using a catalogue number. However, in most cases, there are several copies of each item at a branch, and the individual copies are identified using the index number.

s RGV has grown, so have the difficulties in managing the increasing amount of data used and generated by the company. To ensure the continued success of the company's operations, the Directors of RGV Limited have urgently requested that a database system be designed to help solve the increasing problems of data management. The following requirements were also identified:

Functional Requirements

• Enable users to add, change delete and interrogate records in the following files: Customers and Books master files.
• Enable user to produce invoices to be sent to customers.
• Produce a report showing customers who have not paid their bills within 30 days.
• produce a cash flow of the actual income generated.
• Produce a cash flow of proposed income generated.

As a database consultant and developer, it is required that an analysis an on the library application domain be performed, and d effective database schema that will support the production of the above functional requirements, designed, using the appropriate tools and diagrams.

Project Scope

The project aims to produce a database design and implementation, using an appropriate relational database management system (MS-Access 2003), and an application program that will allow users of the book library to add, delete, amend and manipulate the data in the library database.

For the database design, Enhance Entity Relation Diagramming (EERD) and the physical database will be used. Microsoft Access 2003 or MySQL 5.0. will also be applied in this database design. However, with the front-end application Java GUI (Graphical User Interface) API will be used to build the interface along side Java Database Connectivity that will enable connection to the database.

Visits have to be scheduled to Riverdale-Greaves Library and the staff interviewed about what kind of data they collect. The chief librarians have also agreed to answer any questions related to the manual system that will enable the modeling of the database using Enhanced Entity Relation Diagram, which will serve as a blueprint to build the database tables, fields and relationships amongst the tables. Also the company's input forms, which they use to collect information, will be studied, together with the invoice layout and content, to enable the establishment of a realistic information system that will successfully replace the manual system with little or no difficulty.

For the programming and development of the front-end, studies and research on the Java Programming language, particularly the swing package and Java database connectivity that allows client application to connect to external database and issue SQL queries, have been carried out.

Java actually does not have any inbuilt database sub-language so a standard language, like ANSI-SQL, must be used to build the query, of which I have several books, both electronic books and physical ones as reference, in case further research is needed.

Project Main sub-tasks

Analysis

During analysis, Riverdale Greaves Vanderpuyle (RGV) Limited will be visited to interview the staff and other managers, and also to study the system of operations in order to appreciate and gain an understanding of the antiques business. As the saying goes, one cannot build information systems suitable for a company unless one understands the problem at hand. The information gathered at this point will help in modelling the operations of the antique business using dataflow diagram (DFD), and entity relation diagram (ERD). The end result of the analysis will be a documentation which will contain the above diagram, and other narratives called requirement specification.

Design

Whereas analysis is concerned with specifying, or making clear, a requirement, design is concerned with developing a solution at the abstract level. Design is actually in two parts designing the data model that will support the system, and the front-end application that will manipulate the data. The data model will be used as a blue-print for the database, and the DFD processes will be converted to flowchart or pseudo-codes.

Implementation

Implementation implies using the design as a template for building or developing the application itself and its companion data. Java and SQL (Structured Query Language) scripts will be used for the front-end application and MS-Access 2003 for the database schema.

Testing & Evaluation

Testing is a way of validating and verifying that the software or system developed will meet the specified requirement as was documented at the analysis stage. There is the developer testing using test data, both good and bad, and documenting the result. Then there is the user testing where the system is tested in the user's environment and subjected to usability testing.

V-Model

A variation on the waterfall model is the 'V' model, in which the successive stages are shown in a 'V' formation as in Appendix A. In the diagram, the left, downward leg of the V shows the progress from analysis to design to programming and the increasing breakdown of the system components. The right, upward leg shows the progressive assembly and testing, culminating in the delivered product.

The important feature of this model is that it shows correspondence between the different stages in the project. For instance, the individual programs or modules are tested against the individual module designs, the integrated set of software is system-tested against the system design, and the final system is user acceptance-tested against the requirements specification. This model demonstrates elements of quality assurance (QA) in the treatment of this correspondence.

The V-Model also provides guidance for the planning and realization of projects. The following objectives are intended to be achieved by a project execution:

• Minimization of Project Risks: The V-Model improves project transparency and project control by specifying standardized approaches and describing the corresponding results and responsible roles. It permits an early recognition of planning deviations and risks and improves process management, thus reducing the project risk.
• Improvement and Guarantee of Quality: As a standardized process model, the V-Model ensures that the results to be provided are complete and have the desired quality. Defined interim results can be checked at an early stage. Uniform product contents will improve readability, understandability and verifiability.
• Reduction of Total Cost over the Entire Project and System Life Cycle: The effort for the development, production, operation and maintenance of a system can be calculated, estimated and controlled in a transparent manner by applying a standardized process model. The results obtained are uniform and easily retraced. This reduces the acquirer's dependency on the supplier and the effort for subsequent activities and projects.
• Improvement of Communication between all Stakeholders: The standardized and uniform description of all relevant elements and terms is the basis for the mutual understanding between all stakeholders. Thus, the frictional loss between user, acquirer, supplier and developer is reduced (Forsberg, Mooz, 1998).

Project Plan and Schedule

The following table is the Project's Activity Dependency Chart, and total duration for the project is 280

Initial Literature

Systems Analysis and Design, Donald Yeates and Tony Wakefield, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0273 65536 1, 2004

Java How to program, H. M. Deitel and P. J. Deitel, 6th Edition. Prentice Hall, ISBN: 10:0-13-148398-6, 2004

MySQL Tutorial, Luke Welling and Laura Thompson, MySQL Press, ISBN: 0-672-32584-5

Forsberg, K., Mooz, H. (1998). System Engineering for Faster, Cheaper, Better. Center of Systems Management. http://web.archive.org/web/20030420130303/http://www.incose.org/sfbac/welcome/fcb-csm.pdf.